PUBLIC OPINION.

Patea Mail, 7 September 1881, Page 3

PUBLIC OPINION.

Contributions,. Letters, Inquiries and Answers thereto, are invited on Farming. Commerce, Politics, and matters of interest to the Patea district. Names of writers need not be printed. A VIGOROUS PROTEST. I have some remarks to make on the way in which the Woodville settlers have been treated by the Wanganui Education Board, and take as my text yoyr report of the meeting of that body. “ Mr Coutts pointed out that the Board had treated the district with ample justice.” Did he ? Let us see what are Mr Coutt’s views of ample justice. In last February, several settlers of this district being desirous of having their children educated, enquired of Messrs Coutts and McGregor, the members of Patea District, what prospect there was of the Board buying land and erecting a

school, 1 th‘ rc being no school reserve near the township. The answer from both gentlemen was, that it was useless to apply to the Board for mon?y, as they really had none, and had been obliged to I refuse'many deserving applications for assistance.; but if the settlers could acquire land and erect a school, the Board would no doubt appoint a teacher, upon the settlers guaranteeing him his minimum salary. About as cool a request to begin with, as you will readily find. However, the settlers bearing in mind many* time-honored maxims upon the beauty* of self-help and the blessings that follow that practice, raised a subscription among themselves and their friends, and obtained enough to buy a quarter-acre section, and to put up a school building, 18 x 12, —small but sufficient at present. After the ground had been acquired, and before building had commenced, Mr Coutts paid Woodville a visit by request of the committee, who wished him to be able to report to the Board, from actual inspection, what the settlers were doing. Mr Coutts very* kindly threw cold water on the whole thing. He did not consider the site suitable, to begin with, therein differing from those most concerned ; then he did not see how we could expect the Board to do anything for us if we did not give them an acre of land, being at the same time earful to explain that they really had no money to do anything with. Then, how could the Board spend money on property* which did not belong to it ? and plenty more to the same effect. The outcome of Mr Coutts’s intercession was four desks and a lank ! Since then the Board has voted us £lO for a chimney. Being honorable men, the Committee got the work done as cheaply as possible, and drew only about £8 of that grant. Spouting has also been fixed at the Board’s expense, about £2. The settlers have bought the ground and cleared it, have bought all the building material and carted it, and paid for the building, and are now, according to Mr Coutts, entitled to no consideration from the Board. He says the Board pay’s us the full capitation. The Board pay’s us according to its regular scale, and no more, and I should be glad if Mr Coutts will point out any possible reason why the Woodville settlers should not receive the treatment that other districts receive. As to the acre of land, that would have cost us about £3O, and I challenge Mr Coutts and Mr Sanson to point out in flie Education Act, or in the rules of the Wanganui Education Board, anything on the subject of an acre of land being required before the Board will erect a school. “ The Chairman said the committee proceeded the wrong way.” No doubt the right way* would have been for the settlers to spend all their money in land, and convey* it to the Board as a free gift, but it was clearly* shown to us that even then the Board could not give us a building, and I most respectfully* submit that a large and powerful body* such as thejWanganui Education Board should not expect settlers who are already sufficiently taxed for educational purposes to be at the expense of providing their own school premises. If the Woodville settlers have erred, they erred at the instigation of members of the Education Board, and although I believe the trustees of the Woodville school property, of whom I have the honor to be one, have no objection to band it over to the Board if they* will give us a liberal equivalent in the shape of improvements to the premises, I would point out that even then the Board will have been the gainers to the extent of something like £4O, contributed by the settlers and their friends. Of course the matter is not going to stay where it is. Men who have subdued the forest are not to be silenced when pleading a just cause by the utterance of pompous platitudes, A copy* of your igsue in which this appears will go to each member of the Education Board, and I have no fear but that the Board will do us justice when they understand fully the case. As I have made frequent mention of Mr Coutts’s name, it is only fair I should subscribe myself, v G. A. Marchant. Sept. 3,1881. «. Received : Letters re. Cemetery, re jumping cattle, re Williams’s bankruptcy, and “ What is truth ?”